Lightroom Collections
For me, much of the power of using a piece of software like Adobe Lightroom is that it utilizes a central database as reference to your images. This is one of the biggest differences between using Lightroom to access and organize your work versus some other form that simply relies on your hard drive directory / folder structure. This central database allows you to create virtual references to your images without creating duplicate file copies of them. You can do this in the Develop area to process alternative versions of the same image. One of the more powerful features that I utilize quite a bit are the Lightroom Collections.
Collections are a way to create alternative groups of your images without moving them around or creating duplicates on your hard drive. These are basically virtual folders, that can have parent folders, and child folders, to organize your work in different ways. The image can even be on an external drive that isn’t attached to your computer. You can even create “Smart” collections that automatically add images based on a certain reference, like a rating, color label, or metadata.
I have shown an example of some of my Collection folders here. I use it to track themed projects, like my yearly favorites. Over the period of the year, if I have an image that I really like that might be a candidate, I can just drag and drop it into this folder for reference at the end of the year. (Note to self, 2011 is half over!)
They are a great way to organize slide shows, especially with Lightroom’s powerful built-in Slideshow feature. You just drag and drop images into a specific show folder, arrange them how you like, and then click over to the Slideshow section to add text content and further customization.
I also use it to track my image sales, which sales are prints, which are licensing agreements, etc. It is a nice reference for me to be able to go back to refresh my memory on what people have purchased. It also gives me a visual overview at year end of which images sold or were published. I have Collections for image submissions, which images are on my main page slideshow, which have been filed for copyright, all sorts of things. It is really up to you on making them represent whatever you like. Even if you don’t sell your work, they are a great way to group images together for personal projects, to create collages, or simply to organize the decor for a room.
In addition to all of the other powerful features of Lightroom, Collections are the icing on the cake for me. They really make Lightroom my go-to reference for organizing all of my work. With all of this information in a database, it is highly important that your database is regularly backed up. Fortunately Lightroom makes that rather simple as well. Now, if I could only organize my physical office space in such a dedicated manner!
For more on Lightroom, also see Bret Edge’s article Five Things Every Lightroom User Should Know.
French Angelfish
About the header image: I needed an image for this post to appear in my header slider for the blog. Does it have anything to do with Lightroom? Absolutely not. 🙂 But it is colorful. Pictured are two French Angelfish from my recent trip to Bonaire. I followed these two for quite awhile in the shallows hoping they would eventually line up in this way. Photographed with a Nikon D700, 105 f2.8 lens, Nauticam Housing, and Aquatica Macro port.
To be honest I have passed up Lightroom because I knew I didn’t need another editing tool. I have always heard a little about the cataloging features but never gave it much thought. What you have said about it Mark really tells me I may very well need this for no other reason than the cataloging and database referencing alone.
I’m trying to control the organization of thousands of images at the present with the typical tree structure of folders and sub-folders knowing I have images that need multiple references and the only way to do that is with duplicate images in separate places.
Thanks for sharing this Mark it has opened my eyes to something I believe I need to be considering.
From what you are describing, it sounds like it will handle it perfectly Brad. Glad I could offer some insight.
Good post and great photo, Mark. I think that Adobe did excellent job with Lightroom. It soon became my mostly used tool for sorting and processing photos. It is fast, provides tools for >95% processing I do and it looks great. The way it uses collections and how the image library database works are excellent.
Yeah…I love Lightroom collections. I use them all the time and find smart collections can be very useful as well.
Mark, do you use one Lightroom Library or do you have other libraries for older photos?
Doesn’t matter if the photo is related to the post…they both stand on their own merits and beauty.
Hi Earl, so far I only have one Lightroom Library. As I collect more “non-nature” images, I may eventually split those off, but for now I like having it all in one place.
Pretty photo of the angelfish, but it doesn’t show up in the header for me for some reason. Lightroom sounds interesting…thanks for the info!
Lana, the header slider is only on the main blog page.
Thanks for the Lightroom info! I hope you guys keep it coming! I am in the middle of the daunting task of switching over from Aperture now, and I love all of the tips. Thanks!
Yes, Lightroom is what I use 95% of the time. Of the remaining 5% I use 3% with plug-ins and 2% for Photoshop Elements. Collections are something I like to use also. thanks for the link to Bret’s blog. Awesome image of the angelfish!
The Anglefish photo is amazing, worth following them. I noticed you shot them with the 105 macro. That is such a great lens.
Since I don’t have Lightroom (but I do have Photoshop), I’ve been using the collections and Smart Collections tools in Bridge, much as you have. It’s a good alternative if Lightroom isn’t available.